Search Climate Insights Directory

The 2022 Voluntary Local Review for Pereira, Colombia, documents the city's efforts to align its Municipal Development Plan (PDM) 2020-2023 with the UN Sustainable Development Goals. The report focuses on four priority goals: Quality Education (SDG 4), Gender Equality (SDG 5), Life on Land (SDG 15), and Partnerships for the Goals (SDG 17). It highlights the use of the 'Pereira Territorio Sostenible' platform for monitoring and identifies key challenges, such as the lack of reliable local data and legal limitations on municipal authority over environmental conservation, which is primarily managed by the regional authority CARDER.

The report details a USAID-funded project led by the Stockholm Environment Institute to integrate climate change considerations into Colombian water management. By deploying the WEAP modeling system and a participatory RDS process in the Otún, La Vieja, and Alto Magdalena watersheds, the program built technical capacity within regional environmental authorities (CARs) and academic institutions. Key findings include the critical role of páramo ecosystems in maintaining dry-season baseflows and the potential for hydropower development to disrupt downstream wetland dynamics in the Magdalena-Cauca basin. The project emphasizes moving from 'conscious incompetence' to 'conscious competence' in climate adaptation planning through institutional capacity building and the creation of a professional community of practice.

The document details the application of the Water Evaluation And Planning (WEAP) system to model the La Vieja river basin, covering an area of approximately 2,880 km2 across the departments of Quindío, Valle del Cauca, and Risaralda. The model incorporates 37 watercourses, 16 human consumption demands, and 4 hydroelectric demands. By utilizing a soil moisture rain-runoff method and calibrating parameters such as runoff resistance and hydraulic conductivity, the project established a framework to evaluate 1,728 scenarios involving climate variability and demographic changes. This process aims to support regional environmental authorities in formulating adaptation strategies for water resource planning through 2050.

The study estimated that the La Vieja river basin receives approximately 15 tons of pollutant load per day, primarily from domestic sources. By integrating WEAP and QUAL2K tools, the project modeled 12 tributary sources and identified six sub-basins responsible for 96% of the pollutant load. The analysis included a participatory XLRM process to identify 14 uncertainties and 10 management strategies, while incorporating 30 climate change scenarios for the 2010-2050 period to support institutional decision-making.

The document details the application of the Water Evaluation and Planning (WEAP) model to the Otún river basin in Colombia to assess water supply and demand under climate change. It identifies the Corporación Autónoma de Risaralda (CARDER) as the primary institutional manager and calculates a total water demand of 10.35 m3/s for human consumption, energy generation, and environmental flows. A key finding is the critical role of the páramo ecosystem, which provides a relatively constant water flow and contributes up to 60% of the flow at Nuevo Libaré during low-flow months like August.

The project aims to support Colombia's national climate change response by providing Corporaciones Autónomas Regionales (CARs) with analytical tools to manage water allocation and adaptation strategies. It focuses on the coffee-growing region, emphasizing the role of high-elevation páramo ecosystems in regulating water supply. Key activities include developing WEAP models for the Río La Vieja and Alto Magdalena watersheds, integrating hydrology and water quality data, and applying the RAND Corporation's XLRM framework for robust decision-making. The project also seeks to enhance WEAP software functionality regarding spatial scale articulation, floodplain inundation, and ecological limits of hydrologic alteration to better understand the cumulative effects of local adaptation on the basin-scale Magdalena-Cauca system.

The report examines the transition from traditional, inefficient bus services to modernized systems, primarily Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), across 13 cities in Latin America and Asia. It highlights that while these systems generally improve travel speed, reduce emissions, and lower capital costs compared to rail, they often suffer from rushed implementation, inadequate user education, and financial instability due to politically determined fares. The analysis emphasizes the importance of high-level political commitment, comprehensive planning, and the use of technical fare-setting to ensure long-term sustainability.

The report analyzes bus system improvements across 13 cities in Latin America and Asia, highlighting the benefits of bus rapid transit (BRT) such as high usage levels and low capital investment. It identifies recurring failures in planning and implementation, including rushed launches and lack of integration with other transport modes. The document concludes with strategic recommendations for the planning and decision-making phases of urban transport reform.